Posted By Josh Rogin Share

You may have read today that "The White House" has joined the social networking site Foursquare, so followers can track President Barack Obama. There is a new "White House" page where Obama's staff checks-in to specific locations when the president travels around the country, so fans in those areas can come out and see him or at least see where he recently was.

But actually, the actual White House here in Washington, DC, has been a Foursquare location for over a year and it already has its own "mayor," the person who checks in the most.

"The White House is now on Foursquare, a location-based social networking website, which is the latest way for you to engage with the administration," the White House said in a blog post on the move today. "There are over 10 million people already ‘checking in' around the world, and now you'll be able to discover ‘tips' from the White House featuring the places President Obama has visited, what he did there, plus historical information and more."

That's nice, but the other, unoffficial White House on Foursquare already has 23,568 check-ins, including six from your humble Cable guy, and 124 tips posted by everybody from Politico to Ellen DeGeneres.

Not only that, the existing White House on Foursquare already has a "mayor": Aya Maher, a staff reporter with the Japanese newspaper The Asahi Shimbun, who gave an exclusive interview on today's news to The Cable

Maher said she's been mayor of the White House on Foursquare for over a year, but hasn't quite received the kind of attention that President Obama has gotten by being on the site for only one day.

"It gives me a lot of street cred among my social-media-savvy friends, but sadly, has had no other benefits," she said. "I do get a lot of random tourists wanting to be my friend."

She questioned whether Obama really has the wherewithal to check in on Foursquare consistently enough to establish a successful Foursqare identity.

"I imagine that POTUS has a lot of people calling and emailing him all the time, which could really divide his attention, and quite honestly, diminish his chances at ever really making it big on Foursquare," said Maher. "Alas, I think he is going to have to make the tough choice between being the president or the mayor of the White House."

And what does Maher think of the fact that the White House has swooped in and replaced the existing White House Foursquare site that she worked so hard to become the leader of?

"As POTUS' soon-to-be mayoral predecessor, I think the least he can do is give me an exclusive interview," she said.

Foursquare individuals register their location, allowing friends and fans to track exactly where that person is at any time, so they can meet up in person or rob their house when they're out of town. Follow the new, official White House Foursquare page here, the old White House page here, Maher's page here, and the Cable guy's page here.

 

JULIEHOWARD1

8:15 AM ET

August 18, 2011

Interesting...........

I wonder if the other mayor has got any good policies the US might implement? Perhaps she could do something sensible with world debt? How about the situation in afganistan? She probably has some great ideas!

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EGISTUBAGUS

12:23 PM ET

September 11, 2011

White House here in Washington, DC, has been a Foursquare locati

the actual White House here in Washington, DC, has been a Foursquare location for over a year and it already has its own "mayor," the person who checks in the most
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JAMESSAW

12:36 PM ET

September 12, 2011

For instance

For instance, in the most recent edition of the quintessentially establishment journal Foreign Affairs, Nobel prize winning economist Michael Spence emphasizes that America will have to dramatically improve its performance in the traded sectors of the economy bestchainsaws. In this he is only echoing the International Monetary Fund's call for global "rebalancing". Not to be outdone, Peterson Institute Director and perennial free trader Fred Bergsten in a recent op-ed. for Bloomberg called China perhaps the world's most protectionist nation and suggested U.S. counter actions such as Treasury buying of China's yuan in retaliation for Chinese intervention in currency markets to buy dollars.

 

John Hudson reports on national security and foreign policy from the Pentagon to Foggy Bottom, the White House to Embassy Row, for The Cable.

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